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Two websites in different niches. Should I create separate G+ authorship profiles?

I have two different websites. One of them is one of the most authoritative e-commerce websites in its niche. I own forums, installation resource websites and various other sites that provide excellent user information and customer interactions.

There is another e-commerce website that I own which is very young and not as authoritative. I am about to start building it out like I did for my other site.

My question is about whether I should link my G+ profile and become a "contributor/author" to the new e-commerce site(s) or if I should have someone else in the company be the "face" of this website. Since they're in two completely different niche's, I didn't know if it will give mixed signals to Google if my G+ profile is all about niche A, and then I start throwing in rel=author and being a contributor to other sites that have nothing to do with the original niche.

Should I create another G+ profile to contribute to all of the guest posting & 2nd tier site creation for the new niche site or just use the one I have now for the time being?

4 Responses

From my interpretation of Google's Patent filing in 2011 on Agent Rank (continuation patent from the original one in 2005), if you are truly writing good content on both fields, one is the way to go. The industry is using the term AuthorRank so I'll use that for consistency going forward.

The idea that you can have higher AuthorRank in one subject vs another, I feel, is completely wrong. AuthorRank will be determined by a number of factors including how often your content is shared, how quickly it's shared, who shared it, how many +1s, likes, etc. It will be a completely query-independent calculation. It's much like PageRank in that respect. PageRank is query-independent because it takes the links pointing to your site, the quality of those links and comes up with a numerical score. I think this is what AuthorRank will do to. It will take the author, the number of shares, likes etc and come up with a numerical score. Google will then implement this score into their Algorithm and produce a SERP.

"...the reputation of a particular agent is a function of the reputation of the content and agents which refer to it." (from the patent) I think what this is saying is they're going to grade you on the quality of the people who like your content.

Basically, what I'm saying is that your "reputation" will depend on how often your content is shared as a whole, NOT on which topics you write about. SEO of the page will still matter when it comes to placement in the SERP but AuthorRank, much like PageRank, will have a major factor.

Let's take this from Google's point of view for a second. Their job is to provide the most relevant content for a given query.

Now, let's say I write articles about SEO all the time, they get shared, promoted on SEOmoz, +1d etc. In general, me showing up high in the SERPs is good for searches because I'm a reputable source on SEO because my peers "voted" for me.

But let's say I start a brand new blog on Cookies (the edible kind) and no one cares about my cookies, no one shares my recipes, no one +1s them on Google+. Just because I had a high AuthorRank doesn't mean I deserve to rank for everything, right.

So here's what I think will happen.

I will start to loose AuthorRank because a portion of my content is not being shared. The percentage of my content that is being shared drops to only about 60 percent or so. As a SEO, I want my SEO stuff to start ranking again so I'll stop writing about cookies and stick to SEO.

Google likes this because the people who do like Cookies didn't like my content enough to share it so I drop out of the SERPs on that end. AuthorRank will FORCE people to create really high quality content or suffer the consequence of it. People will naturally stick to the topics they know really really well so it can be shared and the searcher looking for a particular subject gets a really good experience because the SERPs will provide the most relevant content for a given query.

To answer your actual question...got off topic there a little...of "should [I] link my G+ profile and become a "contributor/author" to the new e-commerce site(s) or if I should have someone else in the company be the "face" of this website." If you are truly passionate about both topics then I would say connect it and run with it. If you are truly writing quality content, it will get shared, liked etc and help contribute to your AuthorRank. You mentioned you were authoritative in your niche. I'm not sure what you mean by that and how that relates to authorship. I do know that for Google+, you can have circles and it's a great way to separate the two fields unlike that on Facebook. You can set up Circles with different niches so you can drive content to those particular people in each niche. That should get you more likes, shares +1s. Not to mention that a lot of Google+ stuff passes link juice too.

I hope this helps. I know it is a little long winded but I hope I conveyed my thoughts clearly.

BTW, here's the links to the Agent Rank patent so you can read it over and determine (predict) what is best.

I had a client who has the same problem and I advised him the same what i am advising you... Think about the real life and see if a person can talk and talk about two completely different niches and the answer will probably be yes!

I am writing on my SEO blog as it’s my profession and at the same time I have a blog where I write short stories which is kind of my hobby! It is actually good to go with both website with the same author tag as I am actually the person behind it!

Similar is your case, If you are the real face behind the two website from completely different niches then you should go for the same anchor text.

There's plenty of room within a profile to write about the stuff you want to write about without having to feel like you're pigeonholed. I don't think G+ profiles should be looked at as restrictive. Rather, just like in the real world, you are as authoritative on a subject as you are able to devote time to it. By splitting your time between two or three or four or ten subjects, leaves you less time to be an authority on any one in particular. But that's a choice we all make everyday. I don't think you are going to dilute any relevance by doing so.

Are you contributing to both the websites as an Author ? Do you have real content that is being authored/posted under your name on both the websites ? Do you have people that relate to both industries in your Circles or following you ? If yes, I wouldn't mind using the same G+ Profile. It's what's correct. That's what makes sense.

It's like if I am working for a Pet Supplies company for example and I am posting on it's blog everyday, but then at home I am also a Coin Collector and have a blog about it. They have nothing in common but it would still make sense that I am the author of both the websites since I really do contribute to both of them.

I hope this helps. Most of the times, it's a very easy answer if you try to think search engines don't exist. What would you do ? You get the answer and apply that. That's what is correct, right and the most accurate way of doing it.

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